By now you should be scouting your soybean fields for soybean aphid on a regular basis. Soybean aphid can be found in most fields throughout the state and populations have reached economic threshold (250 aphids per plant) in some fields in northwest Minnesota and have require insecticide application to protect soybean yield. In northwest Minnesota (especially around Norman County), applications of pyrethroid insecticides are failing to adequately control aphid populations in some, but not all, fields.

This is the third year in a row that we have received reports of failures of pyrethroids to control soybean aphid in Minnesota. In 2015 and 2016, field-level failures of pyrethroid insecticides were reported (Figure 1) and pyrethroid resistant populations of soybean aphid were confirmed in Minnesota, particularly in parts of southwest Minnesota. In addition, a resistant aphid population was also found near Crookston in northwest Minnesota in 2016, just north of the area experiencing problems this year.